Yvan Colonna was attacked on Wednesday by an inmate convicted of terrorism while he was doing bodybuilding alone, the victim of “strangulation with his bare hands then suffocation”, according to Tarascon prosecutor Laurent Gumbau.
The day after his attack by a fellow prisoner in Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône), the Corsican independence activist Yvan Colonna was still Thursday morning in a coma in Marseille, in stable condition, we learned from from one of his lawyers.
“No improvement or deterioration,” Patrice Spinosi, his lawyer and that of the Colonna family, told AFP, insisting that he was not brain dead. On Wednesday evening, the Tarascon prosecutor’s office indicated that he was in a post-anoxic coma, a type of coma resulting from oxygen deprivation in the brain.
Read also :
“Strangulation with bare hands” and “choking”: what we know about the attack on Yvan Colonna in prison
His attacker taken into custody
The 61-year-old shepherd and pro-independence activist was arrested in July 2003 for the assassination of Prefect Claude Erignac after four years in the Corsican bush. Sentenced to life in prison, he has always denied the facts.
Read also :
Assassination of the prefect Érignac by Yvan Colonna: 5 key dates to understand everything
His attacker is in police custody as part of an investigation by the judicial police for “attempted assassination”.
“Let the truth be made”, assures Darmanin
“We are obviously going to do everything necessary for the truth to be revealed about this attack on Mr. Colonna”, assured Thursday on France Inter the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, noting the “tempered remarks” of elected officials Corsican “despite the difficulties”.
“I obviously believe that everyone is very shocked by this story. I want to have a thought for the family of Mr. Colonna, I also want as Minister of the Interior to have a thought for Mrs. Erignac and the Erignac family” , he added.
Responsibility
Anger quickly spread from Corsica, where he had long been asked to be reunited in an island prison. Requests made primarily by Yvan Colonna, who is placed under the status of “Specially Reported Detainee” (DPS), which prevents him from being incarcerated in the Corsican prison of Borgo, but which have all been rejected.
Read also :
Yvan Colonna between life and death: the main Corsican nationalist party points the finger at the French state
“The state was legally responsible for Yvan Colonna’s safety. If he dies, the prison administration and the entire political hierarchy on which it depends will have to be held accountable,” his family said on Wednesday.
The president of the executive council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, also considered that the state bears “an overwhelming responsibility” in this aggression.
–
